Some say president overstepping authority

Published
12:00 am CDT, Monday, September 8, 2014

President Barack Obama’s plans to expand the U.S. military role against Islamic extremist groups could overstep his authority, according to a longtime Jacksonville congressman who helped write the law that keeps the president’s power in check.

Obama is expected to announce plans this week to expand the military campaign against the Islamic State. According to the Wall Street Journal, that could include intensifying air attacks to target militant strongholds.

Paul Findley of Jacksonville, who served in Congress from 1961 to 1983 and was a principal author of the War Powers Resolution of 1973, says the president could be usurping authority specifically given to Congress.

“President Obama stated on network television … that he ‘may’ have authority to order airstrikes in Syria. He does not. Moreover, bombing he ordered in recent days in Iraq by U.S. aircraft violated the Constitution and the War Powers Resolution of 1973,” Findley said. “If Obama wishes lawfully to order airstrikes in the territory of Iraq or Syria, he must first secure a resolution of approval from Congress. Either the president or House leadership should issue a call for a special session of our vacationing Congress for that purpose. The War Powers Resolution authorizes expedited procedures to speed legislative consideration of proposals dealing with war powers.”

The War Powers Resolution stipulates the president can send U.S. armed forces into overseas action only with a declaration of war from Congress, “statutory authorization” or if there is “a national emergency created by attack upon the United States, its territories or possessions, or its armed forces.” It requires the president notify Congress of a military action within 48 hours and limits the action to 60 days without authorization by Congress.

If the president violates the War Powers Resolution, he could be subject to impeachment.

Congress, however, remains deeply divided about expanding the U.S. presence. Since August, there have been 140 airstrikes, including one Sunday that targeted an area near Haditha Dam, a stronghold of the Islamic State insurgents, also known as ISIL or ISIS.

“The constitution authorizes only the Congress to order acts of war. By this decision, the framers deemed the decision of war-making too important to be made by one person, the president,” Findley said. “Enforcement of limits on residential employment of war powers deserves the vigilance of each member of Congress. Each member should consider enforcement a grave personal responsibility. War measures that today seem inconsequential can lead to larger involvements tomorrow. Their ultimate size and duration are unpredictable, as we found in our costly war experiences in Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan.”

Obama has maintained he has “constitutional authority to conduct U.S. foreign relations and as commander in chief and chief executive.”

Writing in the Los Angeles Times, however, former congressmen Mickey Edwards and David Skaggs — who are co-chairmen of the Constitution Project’s War Powers Committee — said the overseas operations already exceed that exception.

“More troubling, the president’s stated rationale lacks any discernible limit on U.S. combat operations going forward. Reminiscent of rhetoric used to justify military intervention in Libya three years ago, the president said recently that the United States has ‘a national security interest’ in making sure that a ‘savage group (like Islamic State) … is contained, because ultimately it can pose a threat to us’.”

The brutality of attacks by ISIS — including the killing of journalists James Foley and Steven Sotloff — prompted Secretary of State John Kerry to say the group “and the wickedness it represents must be destroyed.”

“We take no position on those grave policy choices. But Congress must. Unless and until it does, the president lacks constitutional authority to proceed on his own,” Edwards and Skaggs wrote.

The New York Times reported Monday, citing unidentified officials, that the White House is considering a three-phase plan that could last as long as three years and could include airstrikes in Syria. The Syrian government has cautioned the U.S. against airstrikes in the country without its permission.

Obama is scheduled to meet today with House and Senate leaders, and is expected to address the nation Wednesday.

“Arguing on behalf of restraint of presidential war powers while a member of Congress, Abraham Lincoln, in a letter to his former law partner, Billy Herndon, declared the authority to go to war is the ‘heaviest burden’ government can impose on its citizens,” Findley said.

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David C.L. Bauer can be reached at 217-245-6121, ext. 1222, or on Twitter @EditorDCLBauer.